On the $Γ$-limit of weighted fractional energies

Abstract: Given $p\in[1,\infty)$ and a bounded open set $\Omega\subset\mathbb R^d$ with Lipschitz boundary, we study the $\Gamma$-convergence of the weighted fractional seminorm [ [u]{s,p,f}^p = \int{\mathbb R^d} \int_{\mathbb R^d} \frac{|\tilde{u}(x)- \tilde{u}(y)|^p}{|x-y|^{d+sp}}\,f(x)\,f(y)\,\mathrm{d} x\,\mathrm{d} y ] as $s\to1^-$ for $u\in L^p(\Omega)$, where $\tilde{u}=u$ on $\Omega$ and $\tilde{u}=0$ on $\mathbb R^d\setminus\Omega$. Assuming that $(f_s){s\in(0,1)}\subset L^\infty(\mathbb R^d;[0,\infty))$ and $f\in\mathrm{Lip}_b(\mathbb R^d;(0,\infty))$ are such that $f_s\to f$ in $L^\infty(\mathbb R^d)$ as $s\to1^-$, we show that $(1-s)[u]{s,p,f_s}$ $\Gamma$-converges to the Dirichlet $p$-energy weighted by $f^2$. In the case $p=2$, we also prove the convergence of the corresponding gradient flows.